


particularities

by afrocurl



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Forced Marriage, M/M, Post Nuclear War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-13
Updated: 2013-03-13
Packaged: 2017-12-05 05:39:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/719491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/pseuds/afrocurl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Watching as Shaw's plan comes to pass is the least of Charles' and Erik's problems.</p><p>This is a tale of nuclear winter's effects on mutants and the new world order therein. Fraught with far too many difficulties, Charles and Erik form an unusual partnership.</p><p>(Mind the tags, please.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	particularities

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my postage stamp of my trope-bingo card with the following prompts: day at the beach; forced to marry; de-aged; au: apocalypse.
> 
> Betaed by **ninemoons42**.

In the blistering heat, beaten into everyone by the blasts from both the American and Soviet missiles, Charles and Erik stare at each other, eyes forced to focus against the pale sand at their feet.

They had failed to kill Shaw, failed to stop his plan from blooming into fruition, and as the bombs reverberated in the air, Erik tried to stop as many as he could.

A few stray bombs went off around them. Even more sounded far off in the distance.

Everything that they had planned to stop had still come to pass. It was the end of days, truly.

-

_Directive One: All mutants are to remain together at all times._

-

Days passed and Shaw’s team had started with one rule to keep _some_ order amongst the survivors.

Charles had no idea that mutants _could_ survive those levels of radiation, and to be honest, he wasn’t sure that it was possible. Something else would come up later.

He was sure of that.

Five days later, Charles had confirmation of his doubts: everyone who had been with them in Cuba had been deaged.

They all woke the next morning half their age.

-

_Directive Two: All mutants under the age of ten must be in the guardianship of mutants over fourteen. Preference is given to married couples._

-

Erik stared at the latest Directive from Shaw and scowled. Of course this new rule would put all of the children at risk. Alex, Hank, and Sean did not have to think too hard to know that their families were all gone, long since burned in the wake of the explosions.

The children were all adjusting as best as they could to their new bodies, just as Erik was, but he worried (more than he wanted to admit) that he did not want to imagine what would happen to them if no one stepped up to take responsibility for them.

He eyed Charles, still sleeping soundly on the small pad of blankets, and wondered if Charles had thought about the fate of their charges.

Shaw certainly was already thinking of what to do with them - his marriage to Frost was barely days old.

-

_Directive Three: Marriage, due to necessity, shall no longer be restricted to unions between men and women._

-

Janos had been eyeing all the children since everyone changed. Charles’ nerves were fraying at the end, watching nervously for a sign that Shaw’s team would take all of their recruits away from them.

Shaw’s latest directive held promise, he thought.

There was nothing to stand in their way if he and Erik decided to marry - to protect the children from Shaw’s grasp.

Only, the problem was how to present the idea.

*

The children, such as they were, were all curled up in the small space that they called home.

Erik’s hands wrapped against his knee as his leg bobbed up and down to some phantom beat.

Charles’ eyes had been distant - moreso than usual - in the last day or so and Erik was finally going to take the plunge to ask why.

“Is there something on your mind?” he tried, focusing his attention squarely on Charles’ face, rounded now with small hints of childish folly.

Charles tried to look away and mumbled, “I was thinking of the children, especially those we picked up.”

Erik nodded and said, “Me too. I know that Shaw’s directives are designed to keep us together, but I get the feeling his team is looking at us for different reasons entirely.”

“So I’m not the only one bothered by Janos’ presence every day.”

“Not in the least,” Erik said before he moved closer to his friend and lowered his voice. “I think--” he trailed off.

“What?”

He slung everything he was thinking together quickly. “IthinkweshouldgetmarriedtoprotectthekidsfromShaw.”

“What?” Charles asked.

“We should get married and then apply for guardianship of the kids.”

Erik watched, astonished, as Charles barely took a second to think before nodding. “I think we should,” Charles said after he finished his physical agreement.

“So, we’ll get married and apply for guardianship?”

“If that’s what you want,” Charles said just as he grabbed Erik’s hand for confirmation.

“We need to protect them, no matter what.” Erik nodded as he squeezed Charles’ hand.

*

The service was simple, austere even. Shaw, as lord and master of all, oversaw the ceremony, happily pronouncing Charles and Erik husbands.

The children burst into happy and riotous applause as Charles and Erik shared a brief kiss; they did not know the full extent of what this marriage could mean for them.

Charles wanted this kiss to mean something else - a sign of true love and not social duty - but all he did was smile, and take what he had been given.

*

As husbands, the process of applying for legal (such as it was) guardianship took no time at all.

The children, as Erik observed, had no real understanding of the difference between before the wedding and after, but that mattered little.

They were safe from Shaw’s hands, safe from tortures Erik never wished anyone else to know.

In this world, there was some hope.

*

To Charles’ dismay, nothing changed after their marriage. Shaw happily gave them custody of Alex, Hank and Sean, Raven’s position already secured from her status as Charles’ adopted sister.

However, Charles's hopes of seeing a change in his relationship with Erik were quickly dashed to pieces. Certainly Erik wore a wedding ring - he had pieced it together from the remnants of their old suits - but otherwise there were no indications that Charles meant more to him now than he had before.

Charles wished that, like the moment they decided to get married, that they would share a small moment - hands clasped tightly - anything to say that they were more than men who had entered into a transaction borne of pragmatism.

Despite what they were each other now, though, Charles felt that hoping for something else - something more - was a flight of fancy.

He had long since found he loved a good pipe dream, but this one had no chance of changing.

*

Erik looked at Charles whenever he could, without attracting attention.

The children were always up, always playing, leaving him little time to be alone with Charles.

Not that there was much to be said for being alone in a barren wasteland. In the back of his mind, he wanted to be more than he was with Charles, but they had never discussed the remaining details of their arrangement.

Not that it mattered now.

Theirs would be a marriage of convenience and nothing more.

*

Raven watched everything in their small space. She had always been curious, and even now, she was looking for hints about what had the future had in store for all of them.

She noticed that Charles and Erik, even as they were married, were just as cold as they had been at the beach.

Before all of that, there had been potential for them - she had seen it in Erik’s response to her arrival in his room - and now there was nothing.

She would find a way to make their relationship right.

*

Charles had no idea how he and Erik ended up with a night away from the children, but he was determined to not look this gift horse in the mouth.

Perhaps without the trappings of their daily life, they might have time to sort this particular arrangement out..

-


End file.
